The Olympic Flag Is Turning Today 100 Years Old
One of the greatest symbols of the Olympic feeling turned 100 years old on Tuesday, June 17th. The flag was created for the Olympic Congress Jubilee in 1914, in Paris, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Olympic Movement.
The interlocking rings were first used by Pierre de Coubertin – the founder of the modern Olympics - in a letter from July 1913. Shortly after it, the rings appeared for the first time on the Olympic flag raised in the Chatby Stadium from Alexandria during a sporting event celebrating 20 years of the first edition of the modern Olympic Games. Today this flag can be seen at the Olympic Museum from Lausanne, Switzerland.
On June 17th, 1914, Coubertin presented the rings and the flag at the Olympic Congress from Paris, where they were officially adopted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Due to the First World War, the first time the flag were raised at the Olympic Games was in 1920, in the Antwerp Games.
The Olympic symbol, which represents the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from around the world in the Games, has become one of the most recognized worldwide images and the symbolic passing of the flag from a host city to another has become one of the greatest traditions in the end of each Olympics edition.
